


A Part Turns Grey And Rots Away

by afteriwake



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-15
Updated: 2012-10-15
Packaged: 2017-11-16 08:43:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/537602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the years went on, she forgot all about her beloved Kurosaki-kun until all she remembered was his name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Part Turns Grey And Rots Away

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Devil Lies In Wait](https://archiveofourown.org/works/537598) by [afteriwake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake). 



> I had planned on writing a totally different sequel to “The Devil Lies In Wait,” but then I got home and got a wonderful prompt from **shireheart** in a meme. It was “ichigo/orihime -- remember me seldomly” and it just...this thing wrote itself in a half hour, I swear. I hope this makes up for the way I ended the other story. Title snagged from a Linkin Park song that I have actually never heard (Shock! Gasp!) called “Part Of Me.”

When he had died, she had been devastated. Words simply could not express how alone she felt, how hurt she felt, how much she hated him. He had gone off to fight, without a word to her, to Ishida-kun, to Sado-kun. And he had gotten himself killed over it. “Stupid Kurosaki-kun” became a litany in her head, the words repeating over and over and over when the tears finally stopped flowing and the anger set in. And she was _very_ angry at him, more angry than she had ever been in her life. Even more angry than she had been at her beloved brother the day he had died.

Only Ishida-kun and Sado-kun got that she was angry. The three of them, they were together now, all the time. If Tsukishima could kill Kurosaki-kun, with his shinigami and Fullbring and Hollow powers, then they weren't safe separately. They had to stick together, as much as humanly possible. So they did. Sado-kun came back to school and the three of them spent every moment together. They even arranged with the teacher to sit together, with Sado-kun in front of her and Ishida-kun behind her.

All three had their own apartments, Ishida-kun having moved out of his fathers home around the time they returned from Hueco Mundo. They alternated where they stayed, never staying in one apartment more than two nights in a row. They never kept a pattern, and sometimes they stayed with Isshin-san and sometimes they stayed with Urahara-san. The older men, they sensed these children (because really, they weren't adults yet, despite everything they'd been through) needed protection.

She had grieved in private, away from her friends. She had ranted and raved and sobbed and screamed until she was hoarse and tired. And then she was done. She had thought she'd be sadder, she really had, but she wasn't. Anger...she was angry more than anything else. It was like this anger wouldn't quit, wouldn't let her be sad and actually grieve with tears instead of hurtful words.

The first time that Ishida-kun walked in on her punching her pillow he had gone over to her and waited, not asking what was wrong, not asking her to stop, not trying to comfort her. He waited until she was done, and then asked if she was done. When she said no, he told her to wait for an hour. She nodded, and when she heard the door click behind him she panicked. She hadn't realized he was going to _leave_. But when he came back in an hour with a punching bag, she relaxed, and then she realized that he understood.

There was a punching bag in the living room of each apartment. It wasn't just for her use; Sado-kun stopped going to the gym, for fear of leaving them alone, so there was all sorts of gym equipment at each apartment. He was showing her how to hit properly, to hit without hurting herself. He was showing her how to lift weights, small ones. He was building her strength, and she was grateful.

They seldom talked about Kurosaki-kun. Not just because the boys were afraid it would set her off, but because in the first weeks after his death they'd exhausted him. It hadn't been with remembrances, though; it had been trying to figure out what had gone so wrong that he'd lost his life in a fight. She preferred that than to think about him in any loving way. She was still far too angry for that.

Things continued like this for three months before Tsukishima made his next move. They still hadn't figured out what secret weapon the man had had to defeat Kurosaki-kun, but three against one, they stood a better chance. And they fought, and they won. But not without injuries; Ishida-kun lost an eye and Sado-kun had both his legs broken. She had almost gotten killed, but she had managed to heal Ishida's eye and he had fired more arrows than she had ever seen into the man, and he fell off the edge of the rooftop they were on, fifty stories to his death. It almost seemed anticlimactic to her.

They continued to live together, though. They were a true nakama, having been through so many experiences and not really having family of their own. They became the brothers and sister they needed so sorely after the hell they'd gone through. They pooled their resources together, an bought a small house. Once the threat was gone, they'd relaxed, and their friends became their friends again, _real_ friends, until university beckoned them away from Karakura Town.

All except Tatsuki-chan. She had been the only one the boys had let protect Orihime on the rare occasions when they couldn't be there, and when school had ended and everyone else had moved on she had stayed in Karakura Town to continue working at the dojo. It was not long before she was inducted into the nakama, had moved into the house, and in a way taken Kurosaki-kun's place in their lives. She may not have had powers like Ichigo, but she would go to hell and back for any of them, and they all knew it.

Soon the formalities between the four of them dropped completely, and they were on a first name basis. The memories they built with each other took precedence over the memories of their school years, and as time went one Orihime thought of Kurosaki-kun less and less. It was four years after his death when she realized she had almost forgotten what he'd looked like. She remembered the shock of orange hair, and the permanent scowl etched on his face, but she couldn't remember his eyes. And a year after that, even those things she remembered were a bit more fuzzy.

Time progressed for all of them, and she found herself garnering the attention of many young men, just as Tatsuki was, and just as Uryuu and Chad were getting the attention of many women. But the four of them, they found their comfort with each other, and none of them dated other people. She knew in her heart that she had loved Kurosaki-kun, and she knew she would never love someone the same way ever again because she was not the same person she had been when Kurosaki-kun was alive.

It surprised her, then, when she found herself responding to a request from Uryuu to have dinner, away from the others, just them. One dinner turned into two, which turned into more. She grew to love him a bit more than she loved her other friends, but she couldn't bring herself to be madly in love with him, the way she had been with Kurosaki-kun. Still, she did fall in love, and found a reciprocated love to be far more precious than a burning bright love for someone who never noticed.

By the time she was thirty, she had nearly forgotten about Kurosaki-kun. Sometimes he would come up in conversation, when the four of them, or even the three involved in Hueco Mundo, would reminisce over a cup or two of sake. But she no longer remembered clearly what he looked like, how he sounded, how he moved. He was a whisper of a memory now, nothing more.

So when the Hollow attacked her on the eve of her thirty-first birthday, she was surprised to see a figure clad in black with bright orange hair destroy it. He landed gracefully on his feet, his back to her. Then he turned around, and she gasped. It was Kurosaki-kun. He hadn't aged a day, and the realization brought back every sensory memory she had of him. It was as though the vault of her memory opened up and everything hit her in a tidal wave. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “Kuro...Kurosaki-kun?” she asked quietly.

“Hey, Inoue,” he said with a nod.

“Ishida,” she corrected. “I'm Orihime Ishida now.”

He looked at her, and then nodded slowly. “I know. I...heard. I guess...old habits, you know?” She looked at him, looked closely, and saw he looked the same as he always did, except for a band and a badge on his upper arm. He was in the Gotei 13. If she remembered correctly, that indicated he was a Lieutenant. He caught her looking, and then shrugged. “When I died, I made my way there and...they made me Lieutenant of the 13th Division. Pissed off Ukitake's third seats,” he said with a slight grin.

“I see,” she said.

Awkward silence settled for a moment, and then he spoke up again. “You look gorgeous,” he replied. “You grew up really nice.”

“Thank you,” she said, a slight blush on her cheeks as she inclined her head a bit. “You haven't changed at all.”

“Yeah, well...it happens when you're dead.” He grinned at her slightly, and she found herself returning it a bit. Then the grin disappeared and he sobered up. “There's trouble in Hueco Mundo again. Not Aizen, but...” He shrugged. “Yamamoto wanted Urahara to know, and I volunteered. I'm going back tonight.”

“Oh,” she said.

He looked at her, then moved closer to her, sticking his sword on his back and waiting for the sash to wrap around it before getting two steps away from her and running a hand through his hair. Come to think of it, she noticed, it was longer, the same length it had been when he had finished fighting Aizen. “I'm...sorry. I'm sorry I went after him and didn't tell you guys.”

She was quiet for a moment as she tried to figure out how to respond when a realization hit her. She gave him a wide smile, and then reached up and touched his cheek. “I forgave you years ago, Kurosaki-kun.”

He shut his eyes and leaned into her hand. For a moment he looked contented, before he opened his eyes and pulled away from her. “Ishida's lucky to have you,” he said quietly, thickly. He took a step towards her and kissed her forehead before resting his forehead against hers. “If...if you die, if any of you die, you go looking for me. You go find Jidanbou and you tell him you're looking for Lieutenant Kurosaki, okay? You and Ishida and Chad and Tatsuki...you all go and you _look_ for me. I don't care how old you are, you go look for me and you make sure I'm found, okay? Promise me.” The last part was more forceful than the rest, and she realized he was very serious about it. “Promise me,” he said again, his voice a tightly controlled whisper.

“I promise,” she said. “I will tell the others, and we'll look for you.”

“Good.” He pulled away completely, took a few steps back, and looked at her intently. “I have to go. But...happy birthday, Orihime.”

She felt a tear slip down her cheek as she smiled a shaky smile at him. “Thank you, Ichigo,” she said quietly. He grinned back and then he was gone, up in the air and away all over again. She looked on and watched as he became a speck in the starry sky, tears slipping down her face. She would keep this promise, keep his memory close, and she would not forget him again, she vowed to herself. He deserved that much.


End file.
